HCA Healthcare and Bass, Berry & Sims Honored

The Tennessee Bar Association  Access to Justice Committee, in partnership with the TBA Corporate Counsel Section and the Tennessee Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, is working to help foster a coordinated approach to pro bono work and support for the access to justice community by corporate and in-house legal departments in Tennessee. 

This partnership, the Corporate Counsel Pro Bono Initiative (CCPBI), has raised nearly $600,000 through sponsorships by Tennessee corporate legal departments, law firms and other organizations, and individuals over the past 13 years. The initiative has awarded dozens of grants to organizations across the state to engage corporate counsel in local pro bono projects. 

CCPBI also recognizes outstanding service by law firms and legal departments that best exemplify extraordinary commitment to access to justice ideals, pro bono service and the Corporate Counsel Covenant of Service. The covenant recognizes the “ethical obligation of service to the community and to provide pro bono legal services to the poor and underserved.” This year, HCA Healthcare and Bass, Berry & Sims are honored with the CCPBI Awards. 

HCA is being recognized for extended pro bono representation by Senior Technology Counsel Mark Plotkin and his team for a vulnerable Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) client. Plotkin and his team worked for months, preparing an appeal for an 18-year-old with severe medical needs who requires 24-hour, seven-days-per-week nursing services. The HCA team handled preparation for an appeal set for a hearing challenging the reduction of the client’s nursing hours from 168 per week to 91. The decrease came when the client turned 18 and changed his managed care organization. The client’s medical diagnoses include a progressive degenerative muscular dystrophy, scoliosis, gastrostomy tube, wheelchair dependent, PRN oxygen use, among others. The client cannot be left alone because if his machine stopped working, only a skilled nurse could help him. 

As lead counsel, Plotkin worked with other HCA attorneys and staff to provide zealous representation in the client’s appeal of 91 hours per week of skilled nursing services. The client is still waiting for the final order approving the medically necessary 24/7 nursing hours he requires. This tremendous success is largely a result of the commitment from Plotkin and the HCA team.

Bass, Berry & Sims (BBS) is honored as outstanding law firm. BBS is a recognized leader in pro bono, consistently dedicating resources to make a real difference for low-income and underrepresented people across the state. Consistent with the Corporate Counsel Covenant of Service, BBS encourages pro bono work internally and by clients’ corporate in-house lawyers. In 2019, BBS launched a new pro bono initiative that addresses service on a number of levels. It provides for increased hours or credits for all attorneys to dedicate to pro bono activities, counting pro bono hours toward annual billable requirements. The firm also created a unique Fellows program, which allows attorneys across the firm’s four offices to spend up to six months serving full-time in a pro bono capacity within the community. 

In 2019, BBS Fellow Angie Bergman spent six months working with Choosing Justice Initiative where she advocated for bail reform in Nashville’s criminal courts, federal court, and alongside the Nashville Public Defender’s Office. In January 2020, Danielle Irvine began a fellowship with Tennessee Innocence Project, establishing a presence in Memphis in partnership with the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law and pursuing a claim of innocence for a client.

The firm not only supports the work of the Fellow, but integrates the project into pro bono work across the firm. Almost 500 hours were dedicated by other BBS lawyers to issues involving bail reform in 2019 and the firm is currently working on three Innocence Project cases, with the support of a team from Envision Healthcare and a Belmont law student.

As a result of this initiative, as of January 2020, BBS has almost doubled the number of pro bono hours contributed year over year. Pro bono work by the firm’s associates averaged 53 hours per associate firm-wide. BBS is engaged in a breadth of work reflecting a dedication to access to justice, including work with community partner organizations and corporate clients.